Vortex Lattice Simulations of Attached and Separated Flows around Flapping Wings

Flapping flight is an increasingly popular area of research, with applications to micro-unmanned air vehicles and animal flight biomechanics. Fast, but accurate methods for predicting the aerodynamic loads acting on flapping wings are of interest for designing such aircraft and optimizing thrust production. In this work, the unsteady vortex lattice method is used in conjunction with three load estimation techniques in order to predict the aerodynamic lift and drag time histories produced by flapping rectangular wings. The load estimation approaches are the Katz, Joukowski and simplified Leishman–Beddoes techniques. The simulations’ predictions are compared to experimental measurements from wind tunnel tests of a flapping and pitching wing. Three types of kinematics are investigated, pitch-leading, pure flapping and pitch lagging. It is found that pitch-leading tests can be simulated quite accurately using either the Katz or Joukowski approaches as no measurable flow separation occurs. For the pure flapping tests, the Katz and Joukowski techniques are accurate as long as the static pitch angle is greater than zero. For zero or negative static pitch angles, these methods underestimate the amplitude of the drag. The Leishman–Beddoes approach yields better drag amplitudes, but can introduce a constant negative drag offset. Finally, for the pitch-lagging tests the Leishman–Beddoes technique is again more representative of the experimental results, as long as flow separation is not too extensive. Considering the complexity of the phenomena involved, in the vast majority of cases, the lift time history is predicted with reasonable accuracy. The drag (or thrust) time history is more challenging

On the use of control surface excitation in flutter testing

peer reviewedFlutter testing is aimed at demonstrating that the aircraft flight envelope is flutter free. Response measurements from deliberate excitation of the structure are used to identify and track frequency and damping values against velocity. In this paper, the common approach of using a flight control surface to provide the excitation is examined using a mathematical model of a wing and control surface whose rotation is restrained by a simple actuator. In particular, it is shown that it is essential to use the demand signal to the actuator as a reference signal for data processing. Use of the actuator force (or strain) or control angle (or actuator displacement) as a reference signal is bad practice because these signals contain response information. It may also be dangerous in that the onset of flutter may not be seen in the test results

A Class of Methods for the Analysis of Blade Tip Timing Data from Bladed Assemblies Undergoing Simultaneous Resonances—Part II: Experimental Validation

Blade tip timing is a technique for the measurement of vibrations in rotating bladed assemblies. In Part I of this work a class of methods for the analysis of blade tip timing data from bladed assemblies undergoing two simultaneous synchronous resonances was developed. The approaches were demonstrated using data from a mathematical simulation of tip timing data. In Part II the methods are validated on an experimental test rig. First, the construction and characteristics of the rig will be discussed. Then, the performance of the analysis techniques when applied to data from the rig will be compared and analysed. It is shown that accurate frequency estimates are obtained by all the methods for both single and double resonances. Furthermore, the recovered frequencies are used to calculate the amplitudes of the blade tip responses. The presence of mistuning in the bladed assembly does not affect the performance of the new techniques.Peer reviewe

A Cross-Validation Approach to Approximate Basis Function Selection of the Stall Flutter Response of a Rectangular Wing in a Wind Tunnel

The stall flutter response of a rectangular wing in a low speed wind tunnel is modelled using a nonlinear difference equation description. Static and dynamic tests are used to select a suitable model structure and basis function. Bifurcation criteria such as the Hopf condition and vibration amplitude variation with airspeed were used to ensure the model was representative of experimentally measured stall flutter phenomena. Dynamic test data were used to estimate model parameters and estimate an approximate basis function

Flow Visualization and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of Aeroelastic Phenomena

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